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Active Shutter Compositing
I was wondering how I could composite footage I take with a 3D program from 2 cameras to display on an active shutter 3D telesision (like the panasonic viera plasma 3d). I have created some example animations with a left and right eye camera, but how will I compile the footage so that the tv’s glasses recognizes if it’s displaying a right or left eye image?
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17 Replies
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the only effect that i know of that comes bundled with ae, is the 3d glasses effect…
you’ll just add the two pieces of footage to a comp, then add the 3d glasses effect, select the footage for the right eye and the left eye, then select how you want to combine the views…
what i don’t know is if any of those ‘combining’ options will work for what you need.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
The 3D glasses effect doesn’t support active shutter technology.. only every other type of 3D, polarized, red/blue red/green etc. The way active shutter works is that one lens on the glasses closes so that you only see the left or right eye image.. the problem is that if I compile video, the glasses need to know which is the left or right eye image otherwise it could open the left eye for the right image or vice versa. Maybe there isn’t a solution for AE, I’d probably need a script but this technology is so new I haven’t had any luck and I would probably attempt writing one myself but I can’t find a solid article on how the glasses determine the image’s eye side.
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i didn’t think the old 3d glasses effect would work for the new 3d tv technologies… i would think that somebody has either a plugin, or a stand-alone app that creates this….
as you said, it would be easy enough to create alternating frames from two clips, but you’d only have a 50% chance that matched the glasses.
i take it that somehow the media communicates to the glasses for either left or right frame…?
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
what they use is a higher framerate. like 2×24=48fps so each eye gets a full frame. you can do that with ae’s strobe plugin.
a quick example of the plugin
https://maltaannon.com/articles/after-effects/slow-motion/https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/
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I know that the framerate is doubled, but you should read my previous post.. I need to know how the glasses determine whether the tv is showing a left or right image,
(From Wiki: The glasses are controlled by an infrared, radio frequency, DLP-Link or Bluetooth transmitter that sends a timing signal that allows the glasses to alternately darken over one eye, and then the other, in synchronization with the refresh rate of the screen. Meanwhile, the display alternately displays different perspectives for each eye, using a technique called Alternate-frame sequencing, which achieves the desired effect of each eye seeing only the image intended for it.)What I really need to know is how do I integrate those codes into the images?
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The frame rate varies depending on the 3D image signal being reproduced. For example, 3D images are reproduced at 120 fps (frames per second) for a 60Hz input signal, and 100 fps for a 50Hz input signal.
https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/
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Regardless.. I’d need to attach a code on the images for the player to send to the glasses letting them know what frame is being displayed.. otherwise the glasses would just open and close and like the one post says there’s a 50%, if that, chance of the glasses flashing at the correct time, I would like them to flash at 100% of the appropriate time. This would require some sort of script or plugin, I was just wondering if there was one already available for AE.
The tv I’m planning on making the animation for is 60hz.. I’m not a compositor, I’m a 3D animator so compiling my rendered images is not my strong suit, but I have rigged my cameras perfectly and I know what frame rate the images must be displayed at already, all I need to know is how to add the signal ids for the player to communicate to the glasses whether or not a left or right eye image is being displayed.
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[Chris Giusti] “I was wondering how I could composite footage I take with a 3D program from 2 cameras to display on an active shutter 3D telesision (like the panasonic viera plasma 3d). I have created some example animations with a left and right eye camera, but how will I compile the footage so that the tv’s glasses recognizes if it’s displaying a right or left eye image?”
So a Panasonic Viera 3D plasma is your display — what’s your playback device? Unless you’re using something with brand-new HDMI 3D full frame packing, you’ll have to use a 3D format that smushes both eyes into a single standard video stream — interleaved, side-by-side, above-below, or checkerboard.
Side-by-side is very easy to understand — the left-eye and right-eye channels are each squeezed 50% horizontally and displayed next to each other, so each eye takes up one-half of the standard video frame. In 1920×1080, you’d have two squeezed side-by-side 960×1080 frames.
The monitor will stretch them back out to full width and alternate views with the glasses for you. Above-below works the same way, but it sacrifices vertical resolution instead of horizontal resolution.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
How do I compile it though so that the video isn’t just 1 eye? I mean after effects is done in layers so if I have 1 layer as 1 eye and 1 layer as the other, when do I tell after effects which eye is which for the final render? And the player I’ll be attempting to use is the DMPBDT100
Maybe this codec would have something to do with it;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiview_Video_Coding
or MPEG 3DAVAgain though, I’m not a compositor really so I don’t know about these things. Normally I would just render as H.264
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[Chris Giusti] “How do I compile it though so that the video isn’t just 1 eye? I mean after effects is done in layers so if I have 1 layer as 1 eye and 1 layer as the other, when do I tell after effects which eye is which for the final render?”
With side-by-side and above-below, you have both eyes in the frame all the time. You are feeding two squeezed half-res video signals, one for each eye, to the monitor. It scales them back up and handles the active shutter frame sequencing for you.
[Chris Giusti] “Maybe this codec would have something to do with it;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiview_Video_Coding
or MPEG 3DAV”If your player supports MVC, you should check out NetBlender DoStudio — I believe they are shipping an MVC encoder now. Using MVC and and connecting to an HDMI 1.4-capable display means you can use full resolution (instead of throwing out half the horizontal or vertical resolution as above).
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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